December 2013
FUTURE EVENTS
AGM and Party - Saturday 11 January 2014
Patricia Linton with Gerald Dowler - Monday 20 January 2014
Elena Glurdjidze - Monday 10 February 2014
Tamara Rojo - Monday 3 March 2014
Ruth Brill - Monday 24 March 2014
Sir Peter Wright CBE with Michael Broderick - Monday 14 April 2014
Joint Visit, with Ballet Association, to RoyalBalletUpperSchool - Wednesday 30 April 2014
Annual General Meeting and Party - Saturday 11 January 2014
Dragon Hall, 17 Stukeley Street, WC2, 5.00 pm for 5.15 pm
Payment in advance, members £15, guests £20
On this occasion please remember to bring your membership card
Our 67th AGM, to which all paid up members of The London Ballet Circle are invited, takes place at 5.15 pm (doors open at 5.00 pm) and is followed by our annual party at approximately 6.00 - 6.15 pm. A copy of the Agenda is enclosed with this newsletter. Attendance at the AGM is, of course, free, and open to members only, but if you wish to attend the party please send a cheque for £15, made payable to The London Ballet Circle, enclosing a stamped addressed envelope for acknowledgement if required, to the Honorary Secretary, Diane Dewar, c/o Garden Flat, 41 Maxwell Road, London, SW6 2HT.
Guests may be invited to the party from 6.30 pm and payment of £20 should be made for each guest (details as for members).
If you were unable to attend our splendid Celebration of Sir Peter Wright on 28 October this event will be an excellent opportunity to mark his new role as Patron of LBC and Dame Monica Mason’s first AGM as our President and we look forward to yet another enjoyable occasion.
Some of our members in the past have found this venue difficult to find. Dragon Hall in Stukeley Street is off the main thoroughfares but is a very short distance from Holborn station. On leaving the station turn right and cross High Holborn at the traffic lights (Holborn Kingsway to your left, Southampton Row to your right), keep going on the left hand side and go down Smart’s Place, or the next turning, Drury Lane, until you get to Stukeley Street.
Patricia Linton with Gerald Dowler - Monday 20 January 2014 at 7:30pm
The Dining Room,Civil Service Club, 13-15 Gt Scotland Yard, SW1
Payment at the door, members £5, guests £8
Patricia Linton will be a familiar name to most of us in one, or all, of her many hats, dancer, teacher, writer, dance historian/scholar. She joined The Royal Ballet in 1964, going on to become Assistant Ballet Mistress and teacher. She taught at White Lodge from 1974 to 2001 and at Elmhurst, is a regular (and very popular) teacher at the Yorkshire Ballet Summer School and currently teaches at the Central School of Ballet as well as guest teaching elsewhere. She has been a Ballet Mistress for Hong Kong Ballet, co-authored ,The Young Dancer, with Darcey Bussell, is a frequent contributor to Dancing Times, contributed to the LJCC conference on Pavlova, and to the Ninette deValois:Adventurous Traditionalist conference last year. In 2003 she initiated Voices of British Ballet, an oral history archive of which she is Director. We are delighted that she will be in conversation with Gerald Dowler, who has conducted several interviews for us, and look forward to a very enjoyable and interesting evening.
Elena Glurdjidze - Monday 10 February 2014 at 7:30pm
The Dining Room,Civil Service Club, 13-15 Gt Scotland Yard, SW1
Payment at the door, members £5, guests £8
We are very happy to welcome English National Ballet Lead Principal, Elena Glurdjidze, as our guest this evening. Born in Tbilisi, Georgia into a distinguished scientific family, she started dancing at the age of 7, initially at the School of Choreography in Tbilisi and then at the Vaganova Academy of Russian Ballet in St Petersburg, joining the Russian Ballet Company in St Petersburg on graduating and two further companies in St Petersburg before becoming a member of English National Ballet in 2002 as Principal, becoming Lead Principal in 2007. Described in The Observer as “hauntingly and compellingly beautiful in performance” Elena has given memorable performances (among many others) as Giselle, Kitri, Aurora and Manon, and has a special love of the latter role. She has received numerous awards and nominations and is very popular with both critics and audiences. She is married to Kakhaber Abashidze and they have a son, Alexander. Looking ahead to the development of her career, no doubt, she has completed the RoyalBalletSchool’s Professional Dancers Teaching Course.
Tamara Rojo - Monday 3 March 2014 at 7:30pm
The Dining Room,Civil Service Club, 13-15 Gt Scotland Yard, SW1
Payment at the door, members £5, guests £8
We anticipate a very interesting evening in the company of Tamara Rojo, Artistic Director and Lead Principal of English National Ballet since 2012. On graduating from the VictorUllateSchool in Madrid she was invited by Galina Samova to join Scottish Ballet before being asked in 1997 by Derek Deane to join English National Ballet. She moved to The Royal Ballet in 2000, performing all the leading roles in the Company’s repertoire as a popular and widely acclaimed Principal, as well as appearing as guest artist in major companies throughout the world,and remained thereuntil 2012 when she took up her present appointment.
The list of worldwide awards and honours she has received are too numerous to mention, but one of the most recent was The Gold Medal for Fine Arts 2012 at the John F. Kennedy Center for Performing Arts and in Spain King Juan Carlos has decorated her with Spain’s three highest honours, The Prince of Asturias Award, the Gold Medal of Fine Arts and Encomienda de Número de Isabel la Católica. She is on the Board of Arts Council East, Dance UK, the ICA, the Anglo-Spanish Society, a Patron of the Ipswich-based DanceEastAcademy and Adviser to Spain’s Superior Council of Artistic Studies. ENB’s current season sees a keenly anticipated new production of Le Corsaire and Coppelia at the Coliseum, with new works at the Barbican Theatre, including commissionsfrom Russell Maliphant and Akram Khan.
Ruth Brill - Monday 24 March 2014 at 7:30pm
The Dining Room, Civil Service Club, 13-15 Gt Scotland Yard, SW1
Payment at the door, members £5, guests £8
Ruth was born in Kent, trained locally in the Cecchetti method with Judith Wilson, then at the Arts Educational School (now Tring Park) and English National Ballet School, was an Associate of The Royal Ballet School for 4 years and attended their Summer School for 3 years, then Yorkshire Ballet Seminars in 2006. Obviously born to perform, she danced with the National Youth Ballet of Great Britain, London Children’s Ballet, Surrey Youth Ballet and Kent Youth Ballet, also appearing in the excellent television adaptation of Ballet Shoesin 2007 while finding time to enter competitions and win won numerous awards including theBarbara Geoghegan Award (2007), Cecchetti International Ballet Competition (2008) and CecchettiInternational Gala (2011).
She joined English National Ballet in 2007, moving to Birmingham Royal Ballet in 2012. As a dancer she has appeared in many of the Company’s productions, in the established classics as well as in modern works, and more recently has developed a talent for choreography, creating Hit in all Sixes (choreographic workshop 2013) and Butterfly Effect for Elmhurst School for Dance (2013). She is creating a new piece to Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue, to be performed by the Company at Birmingham's Symphony Hall in 2014. Ruth promises to be a most interesting guest.
Sir Peter Wright CBE with Michael Broderick - Monday 14 April 2014 at 7:30pm
The Dining Room, Civil Service Club, 13-15 Gt Scotland Yard, SW1
Payment at the door, members £5, guests £8
Everyone attending our celebration of Sir Peter’s 70 years as a performer was enthralled by some of the stories about his early life in dance and realised that there was so much more about his life and career we hadn’t heard before and very much wanted to learn more. We are delighted, therefore, to be able to offer the second instalment of Sir Peter’s conversation with Michael Broderick and look forward to a fascinatingevening. No introduction is necessary as all with a passion for ballet will have been affected by his influence in some aspect of the art, as dancer, teacher, choreographer, director. As Nutcracker time is with us again and we read the critics, united in their praise of his benchmark productions for The Royal Ballet and Birmingham Royal Ballet, we are reminded of his sure theatrical touch, flair for magic and ability to introduce new insights into every ballet he mounts.
This evening is sure to be very popular so you are advised to arrive in good time.
Joint Visit, with Ballet Association to RoyalBalletUpperSchool - Wednesday 30 April 2014
Full details of this visit will be advised in due course but it was thought that you would like to get the date into your diaries before they become even more crowded.
Also of interest
Saturday 28 December 2013 Brighton Dome and
Friday 20 to Sunday 22 December 2013 Arlington Arts Centre, Newbury
Ballet TheatreUK
This young Company is currently touring The Nutcracker. Sadly they don’t stay long in any one place and tour the length and breadth of the UK but if anybody is near Brighton or Newbury they might be able to manage a performance, especially as “our” YBSS student, David Brewer, and another YBSS student, Julia Davis, known to many of us, are professional members of the Company. Tel: 01273 709709 (Brighton) 01635 244246 (Newbury). In 2014 Ballet Theatre is mounting an exciting production of The Little Mermaid, a dramatic re-telling of Hans Christian Andersen’s story of the Little Mermaid who falls in love with a human Prince and gives up everything to win his love. Ballet TheatreUK’s charming and poignant ballet explores the nature of longing, how making choices have lasting consequences and how goodness can be rewarded in unexpected ways. We will keep an eye on their venues and draw your attention to them, or check
Thursday and Friday 30 and 31 January 2014
London Coliseum
Ivan Putrov: Men in Motion
After the success of his Men in Motion at Sadler’s Wells, Ivan Putrov is putting on a new performance with other artists including Edward Watson, Vadim Muntagirov and Daniel Proietto. The production will feature a live orchestraand chorus with choreography to music by Debussy, Mozart, Tchaikovsky, Stravinsky and Faure. Not to be missed! Tickets from London Coliseum Box Office, tel: 020 7845 9300, See Ivan’s website:
There is a possibility that LBC members may be able to see part of a rehearsal but this has not yet been confirmed. If the opportunity arises members on Email will be informed as soon as possible – those who are not on Email remember to ask your friends who are to keep you informed.
Sunday 2 February 2014, 2.30 pm
RoyalBalletSchool, Floral Street
London Jewish Cultural Centre present Dame Antoinette Sibley with Clement Crisp
This unique afternoon will begin with an exclusive performance by dancers from The Royal Ballet and will be followed by the opportunity to hear the legendary ballerina Dame Antoinette Sibley talk to the doyen of ballet critics, Clement Crisp.
Film excerpts of Dame Antointette dancing will highlight their conversation.
Tickets £30, including refreshments, obtainable from LJCC, tel: 020 8457 5000, Email:
Membership Renewal
Following the announcement of what we are sure members will agree is an exciting and varied programme for the first few months of the new year, it is timely to remind you that our membership year ended on 31 October and subscriptions were due for renewal on 1 November. If it has so far escaped your memory to do this, please send in your cheque for £12(£2.50 for anybody under 25) as soon as possible to our Membership Secretary, Serena Martin, 144 Clarence Gate Gardens, Glentworth Street. London, NW1 6AN. New members joining after 1 Julyare givenmembershipuntil1 November of the following year.
Membership cards will be issued as at times, such as the AGM, it may be necessary to show them, so please send a stamped addressed envelope with your cheque and renewal form to receive yours. Cards will not be issued without a SAE but unmailed cards will be available for collection at the AGM.
We very much hope you will wish to continue your membership but if you have not renewed by 31 January 2014 we shall regretfully assumed that you no longer wish to remain a member and this will therefore be your last newsletter.
A Celebration of Sir Peter Wright 28 October 2013
The National Liberal Club was the grand setting for a special evening in honour of Sir Peter Wright, The London Ballet Circle’s beloved Patron. Seventy-five invited guests and members gathered to celebrate a significant anniversary both for Sir Peter and the ballet world. In October 1943, an eager young man made his debut in “The Green Table”. His appearance lasted thirty seconds but those thirty seconds were enough for that young dancer to know the stage was where he wanted to be. Seventy years later, Sir Peter shared memories of those early days with an appreciative audience.
The evening began with a toast to Margaret ‘Andy’ Andreazzi. Andy was a long time member of LBC, a great ballet fan and friend to all she knew. When she died she left a legacy to be used for the enjoyment of the membership. A party for the members seemed the very thing!
Michael Broderick had the happy task of leading the conversation with Sir Peter. We were royally entertained with stories of wartime days, touring, working in Germany and balancing it all as a young husband and father. Following questions from the audience, President Dame Monica Mason thanked Sir Peter and announced the creation of The Sir Peter Wright Prize. This prize will be awarded annually to a graduating student from ElmhurstSchool for Dance. Robert Parker, Artistic Director of Elmhurst, accepted on behalf of the school.
What is an anniversary party without a cake? Kevin O’Hare proposed a toast to Sir Peter who then ceremonially cut the 70th anniversary cake. That ended the formalities and the social hour began. Delicious canapés, wine and, of course, cake were served and enjoyed by all.
It was a memorable evening and we now look forward to the 75th anniversary!
Susan Dalgetty-Ezra
Following Susan Dalgetty-Ezra’s words of appreciation on our behalf, following the evening, Sir Peter responded as follows:
Thank you for your words of appreciation. I too should be writing you a proper letter to express my gratitude to you for arranging and planning that wonderful evening in my honour. The last couple of days have been impossibly hectic and I don't seem to be able to catch up with myself! I will be away for the next four or five daysand am anxious that you know how grateful I ambefore I leave, hopefully in 10 minutes time. I am therefore sending you this very inadequate email.
Thank you, thank you Susan.That great nightreally has made a huge difference to my ego and I feel I can now get on with the next chapter of my life and work with renewed energy.
I am thrilled and delighted to now be Patron and so happy that my long association with youand everyone will hopefully continue for many years to come. To you andthe whole organisationI send my warmest wishes,immense gratitude and love, Peter
Robert Parker, on hearing the news of the Sir Peter Wright Prize, wrote:
I have just received the information on the Sir Peter Wright Prize. Just to say on behalf of Elmhurst a huge thank you for The London Ballet circle’s generosity and for helping a talented student realise heir dream of becoming a professional dancer. Rest assured that we will select the most deserving individual to be the recipient.
London Ballet Circle Prizes and Awards
With the newly created Sir Peter Wright Prize, to be awarded annually to a student of ElmhurstSchool for Dance, it seems an appropriate moment to remind members of our recurring awards. These are as follows:
The Dame Ninette de Valois Bursary for £500 and The London Ballet Circle Michael Broderick Prize for £400, both awarded to graduate students of The Royal Ballet School embarking on their professional careers at the School’s Annual Prize-Giving.
The Stanley Hawkins Bursary for £500 to enable a talented student to attend Ballet Cymru’s Riverfront Summer Dance’s Advance Ballet Course.
The Dame Alicia Markova London Ballet Circle Scholarship for £485 to make it possible for a gifted student to attend the Yorkshire Ballet Summer School.
The Sir Peter Wright Prize for £500 to be awarded to a student from ElmhurstSchool for Dance.
The donations we invite from our members when we are allowed to attend rehearsals and classes at various ballet schools are paid as a grant, with Gift Aid (which makes a noticeable difference) added where applicable and often rounded up, to the School concerned. In the past year we have made donations to:
EnglishNationalBalletSchool - £950
CentralSchool of Ballet - £600
Yorkshire Ballet Summer School - £1000
Dance Teachers’ Benevolent Fund (following our visit to the Freed Factory) - £250
Richard Chappell Dance - £250 to pay for a ballet mistress for the company’s performance at the Arts Centre, North London